Sirjan Roopra

I am a rising sophomore from Spartanburg, South Carolina and am currently majoring
in biology/ minoring in business. in the beginning I may not have been 100% about
USC but once I arrived I was surprised by how much I love it. After my undergraduate
career I hope to attend medical school and soon after open a practice. My plan B would
be to go to graduate school and into the business field. In the end my goal is to
incorporate both medicine and business into a career I can love.

Favorite movie: I’m too indecisive to have just one but one of my favorite Christmas movies is Home
Alone. It’s become a tradition where I have to watch it every christmas break with
my brothers, sometimes more than once.

My life motto: I try to always remind myself what my grandfather always tells me when I seem stressed
or am complaining. Hakuna Matata, or in other words no worries. I can easily feel
overwhelmed and stressed out over classes or just life in general and in the end that’s
very unproductive. So I have to remind myself that what I feel is a huge deal right
now, but it isn’t the end of the world and I shouldn’t worry about it. you shouldn’t
live your life worrying about every small thing but instead take it with a grain of
salt.

I’m motivated by: seeing others around me achieve their goals and have success pushes me to want to
do the same with my life.

A song I’ve completely memorized: Crooked Smile - J Cole

My pet peeves: people chewing with their mouth open, or walking really slowly in front of you

My advice to prospective students: Take it one step at a time and always be open minded. College can be overwhelming
at first and the only way to get through it is to take a breath and take it one day
after the other. Be open minded when it comes to new experiences. Just say yes because
it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you need to live beyond classes.
Don’t write off a class, a person, or experience by what you’ve heard because it or
they may come to change your life.

My advice to current students: No matter how much the urge to not go to class or sometimes even drop out, just keep
pushing. I believe in us.

My favorite thing about the honors college: All the unique opportunities and connections that are given to honors students like
through research or an internship. The honors community is small and tight knit,
thus making it easier to go talk to a peer or a professor. I love the fact that the
college is full of so many interesting people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives
that you can constantly learn from.

My reason for choosing SCHC: Being a gamecocks fan, USC was always on the table but knowing that the honors college
offers so many opportunities, its prestige, and the size of the honors college ultimately
helped make my decision. The honors college offers me opportunities to not only follow
my goal of going into medicine but pushes me to step outside the box. The flexibility
that the honors college gives allows for me to enjoy what I’m learning.